1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a small vehicle driven by an electric motor and intended mainly for an aged person or a person having difficulties of walking, and more particularly to a braking control system of such a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
In connection with a small electric vehicle of the type noted above, it has been proposed to detect an amount of operation of an accelerator lever with a potentiometer and control rotation of the propelling electric motor based on results of the detection. With the proposed system, when the driver releases the accelerator lever, a main switch of the electric motor is turned off to stop the vehicle.
According to this construction, the vehicle will automatically stop when the driver hastily releases the accelerator lever in an emergency such as a danger of the vehicle running into an obstacle. Thus, running safety is assured under certain conditions.
However, when abnormal circumstances including an emergency as noted above are encountered, the driver could grip the accelerator lever harder instead of releasing the lever. It is also known that the driver tends to stretch his or her legs hard in such an emergency. The above braking control system is ineffective with such behaviors of the driver at times of emergency.